


Morph

by trubenblack



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Homophobic Language, M/M, Minor Character Death, Panic Attacks, Swearing, aaron and andrew are my sons and they deserve everything, fluff and a bit of angst, ghost au!!, the twins never got separated, twinyards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-20 15:48:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16558643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trubenblack/pseuds/trubenblack
Summary: When Tilda Minyard moved with her two boys to Baltimore, anyone who knew the mother, or her children for that matter, did not think the new job would last very long.~Or the fic in which Neil is a ghost, Andrew and Aaron never got separated and Tilda is a bitch in every universe





	1. Chapter 1

When Tilda Minyard moved with her two boys to Baltimore, anyone who knew the mother, or her children for that matter, did not think the new job would last very long. Certain that Tilda would end up too drunk to ever go to work, or too high to truly do any good work if she made it in, Luther Hemmick allowed her to go without too much fuss, promising if it worked out he would follow his sister to Baltimore. Little did Luther know, after a few months Tilda would prefer to be at work, because it kept her out of the house, where she was not welcomed.

 

 

                                                                                                         ~~~~~~~

 

Tilda put her drink down on the counter; she hadn’t even been bothered to fully unpack the car before opening her first bottle. It was wine today, Andrew noticed, something Luther had probably given her to celebrate the move. Andrew and his brother were 7 now, old enough, according to her, to unpack the car while she sat and drank. Andrew was brought back to reality when Aaron slammed into his back pushing him off balance. To any other person it would seem like Aaron was in a mood, but it was simply a reminder to not be caught idling. If Tilda was stressed from the move and she decided Andrew wasn’t pulling his weight, it would end up with him bleeding, probably from his nose, while Aaron tried to stay as far away as possible until she’d left. After she’d left of course he’d come and drag his brother up, pulling him to somewhere safe so he can put a damp cloth on Andrew’s face. This was the way things were in the Minyard household, this was the way it had always been for the twins.

 

Aaron rammed into Andrew’s back again, fully breaking him from his trance. He quickly backtracked away from his mother, making his way to the car. As he attempted to pull a bag from the car, one that was probably twice his weight, and far too overfilled, he lost his balance and fell backward with a curse far too colorful for most children at the age of 7. He picked himself up, his vision falling onto the windows to – the attic maybe? From what he could see this house was much too big for what his mother could afford, but somehow she managed to afford it, Andrew wasn’t going to complain. Some movement in the window pulls him from his thoughts; he would suspect it was Aaron, except Aaron was stepping outside again. He had probably just imagined it.

 

“Can you actually help Andrew? It’s hot and my arms are tired and mum isn’t going to help with this.” Aaron whined at his brother, he hadn’t wanted to move in the first place, scared of leaving his friends from school and Nicky, their cousin.

 

Andrew hadn’t had friends; he was always the weird twin who hated being touched, along with talking. It had never truly been an issue for him though, preferring to be with his books and his own thoughts rather than other humans.

 

“I'm trying Aar, the bags are heavy as fuck.” Andrew said, once again trying to lift the bag.

 

“Don’t let mum here you swearing Drew, we don’t want bruises on our first day of school next week.” Aaron’s voice took on that soft, rather scared quality it always took on when Tilda was in a particularly bad mood, his eyes immediately shifting over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t around to hear.

 

“I know Aar, it’s fine I won’t. Just help me with this bag and then we can finish up.” Andrew gestured to the giant bag he was still struggling with and Aaron took the other side.

 

Eventually the twins managed to get all the bags inside. They had briefly squabbled over rooms, but Andrew had won his room pretty quickly. They’d never slept in separate rooms before, and because of this, as much as neither of them would admit it, sleeping without each other was something that was causing them to feel jittery and anxious, Andrew more so than Aaron, as he didn’t like having Aaron out of his sight when Tilda was around. All of this aside though, Tilda had already told them, they were too old to share a room, especially in a house this big, so separate rooms it was.

 

Once he had mostly finished unpacking his own stuff, Andrew lay on the bed in his room. There was a thud from the floor above him, and this time he was certain he didn’t imagine it. He got up and padded out to the landing. There was a ladder that led up to the attic; he made his way up quickly, hoping that Tilda hadn’t for some reason decided to make her way upstairs. The attic was small and dusty; there wasn’t much in there, a few boxes full of stuff, a chair and a lot of dust. He couldn’t see anything or anybody that could have made that thump, so he decided to look through the boxes, maybe there was some cool stuff in them or the thing that had thumped.

 

The first box was full of clothes, a lot of then with stains on them, possibly mud? They smelled really weird though so Andrew quickly put them back. The only things that weren’t stained had holes all bitten through them, and were clothes that looked like they’d been bought from the cheapest store possible. The second box was much more interesting. After rummaging through a bunch of random things and some knives that didn’t look like anything Andrew had seen in a kitchen, he came across a smaller box with photographs in it. The first one seemed to be of a family, The man had a creepy smile, he didn’t look happy, he looked a bit like Tilda when she was high and about to hit him, but worse. The mother looked angry, she wasn’t smiling and she was staring at the camera like she could kill whoever was holding it with one look. There was a boy with them, obviously the son as he looked almost exactly like the father. His face was pinched, there was no emotion of his face whatsoever, and his father’s hand on his shoulder was holding him rather harshly if the indents in his shirt were anything to go by.

 

“Cool eyes.” Andrew muttered to himself, his focus shifting once more. The blue was ridiculously obvious even more so than his fathers in the photo.

 

“Thank you.” A voice came from behind him, Andrew would never admit to jumping three feet in the air, but he turned to the voice to see the boy from the photograph. He looked around Andrew’s age now, but his face had scars all over it. They looked like bit cigarette burns if Andrew was honest. Tilda had given him a few of these on his arm when he was really bad so he knew they weren’t fun. The kid had a glint of mischief in his eyes, as he fought not to smirk at Andrew’s reaction to his appearance.

 

“What are you doing in my house?” Andrew asked once he managed to calm himself down enough to speak.

 

“It was my house first.” The boy said conversationally, now really beginning to smirk.

 

“What does that mean? Who even are you?” Andrew didn’t want to admit just how uncomfortable he was with this situation.

 

“My name is Neil Josten. I used to live here, before you. I’m almost 90% sure that I am dead.”

 

                                                                                                                   ~~~~~~

 

By the time Andrew came downstairs again it was getting dark, Tilda was passed out at this point, too many drugs and too much alcohol. Aaron however was very definitely not asleep. It seemed he had gone to get groceries while Andrew was talking to Neil. Andrew was slightly displeased that he had gone on his own but he had to concede to himself that he hadn’t been around. Aaron turned around and jumped when he saw him, almost spilling the pasta sauce he was stirring.

 

“Where have you been?” He hissed, keeping his voice down to avoid waking Tilda, “I was looking everywhere for you, I thought mum had locked you in your room again.” His eyes were slightly frantic; looking over Andrew in the way they usually did when he was cataloguing injuries. When he found none he seemed to scowl even deeper, “I called everywhere for you.”

 

“Relax I didn’t mean to be gone so long I was in the attic, I… met someone.”

 

“What do you mean you met someone?”

 

“I mean, I met someone up in the attic, he’s… he’s not normal, I think he’s a ghost Aaron.” Andrew couldn’t really put it any other way. Aaron stared at Andrew incredulously for a moment before beginning to put on his sulking face as Andrew called it.

 

“If you didn’t want to play with me you could have jut said that. You don’t need to lie to me.” He was pouting, so Andrew countered it with a scowl.

 

“I’m not lying, I met a guy upstairs and his name is Neil. I’ll ask him if he’ll talk to you tomorrow. I’m _serious_ Aaron I don’t lie to you about important things.” Aaron’s lower lip slowly pulled itself back in and he eventually shrugged.

 

“Okay, I believe you, just next time tell me before you run off with your ghost boy. I was scared.” Aaron tried to hold his head up in indignation at Andrew for not having been told, but in the end Andrew saw straight through it and saw how worried he’d really been.

 

“I will Aar, when will dinner be ready?” He changed the subject because he didn’t see any point in causing any animosity with his twin. They had enough shit in their lives; they didn’t need to be fighting each other.

 

Eventually they had to wake Tilda up but Andrew had worked out the perfect way to do that, if you went to the next room over and screamed “Mum!” In the loudest voice possible she would startle awake and by the time she was up she would forget why she was mad. Food always tended to settle her down as well; they always made sure they had eaten before her because she would tell them to scram as soon as it was in her hand.

 

Sure enough they were sent away to continue living the lives of 7 year olds, they got out their cars for a while, racing each other around the room in sock feet to make sure they didn’t make any loud thumps that could get them in trouble.

 

“You cheated!”

 

“Did not!”

 

“You did! You’re not allowed to jump over the bed, cars can’t fly!”

 

“They can if they have a big enough ramp.”

 

“There was no ramp. Where is the ramp?”

 

“I used my arm.”

 

“Andrew that’s not fair you’re cheating!” Aaron was scowling but his lip was beginning to wobble, telltale signs of a silent tantrum to come, the argument had been in hushed voices but Andrew couldn’t be bothered dealing with Aaron’s temper right now so he sighed and clambered over to his brother.

 

“Do you want me to read to you before we go to bed?” Andrew had always been the better reader of the two, he remembered almost everything in his life, and apparently Aaron _didn’t_ do that considering he could barely remember any rules to any game. Of course at 7 they could both read perfectly fine, but it had become a habit for the boys as they were growing up, both gaining comfort from the other as they muddled through words together from the ages of 2 upwards.

 

Aaron nodded his head and picked out Andrew’s favorite book at the moment, it was called _Percy Jackson_ and Andrew liked the main character _a lot_ , he never understood how Aaron could prefer Annabeth, she just wasn’t as cool or as funny, all she wanted was to be smart. Percy was reckless and he never let anything stop him, he wasn’t scared of _anything._ Andrew didn’t like being scared, he didn’t like when people yelled or hit him. He swore one day he was going to grow big and tall so anybody who had ever tried to yell at him or Aaron ever again would be too scared of him to even think about it.

 

They made it through another chapter by the time they were both getting tired, Aaron yawned and stretched before curling up with a pillow, his thumb in his mouth. They’d never been allowed stuffed toys; they’d stolen the cars from some kids at school because Tilda would never have given them something like that. Growing up they hadn’t need stuffed toys, always having each other, but separate bedrooms meant they both needed separate things to hold on to. Andrew hugged his brother before making his way to his room on tiptoe to make sure Tilda didn’t hear him. He made it to his room and curled up in bed and tried to sleep. He lay there for what felt like an hour before he heard his door creak open, and he turned over to find his twin in the doorway.

 

“I can’t sleep.”

 

“Me neither, come here.” Andrew made room for Aaron, pulling the covers back for him to clamber under. They curled up in their usual way, facing each other and soon Aaron’s breathing evened out and Andrew felt his eyes fall closed. So far the new house hadn’t been too bad.

 

                                                                                                            ~~~~~~

 

The next morning Andrew was briefly woken by Aaron clambering out of bed before falling back asleep, when he finally woke up it was around 10am. He took a moment to be glad Tilda had to leave for work and that he and Aaron were still on holiday and lay in bed for a little longer before his memory suddenly reminded him of Neil. He was out of bed as fast as possible and immediately clambering his way up the stairs.

 

“Neil?” He called out softly, as he made his way back to where they met the first time. There was no response so he made his way further into the attic calling softly. When he was about to give up and go find Aaron, he heard a small thump from a cupboard in shadows that he hadn’t noticed yesterday. He made his way over and opened up the door. Neil was sitting with his knees up to his chest mumbling to himself with his eyes shut tight.

 

“Neil?” He tried again. This time, Neil’s eyes shot open as he stared at Andrew with no recognition. “Neil it’s Andrew, we met yesterday. Are you okay?” Andrew just now realized that Neil’s breath was sounding very fast and uncomfortable, which was odd because Neil was a ghost and ghosts didn’t need to breathe.

 

“I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.” The softly muttered words were louder now. Andrew reached his hand out and touched Neil’s wrist, it was very cold but felt basically human, weird. Neil gave a full body flinch at being touched but then froze and his eyes cleared enough for Andrew to know he was being seen.

 

“Andrew?” Neil looked confused like he wasn’t quite sure where he was.

 

“Hey idiot, you’re…. are you okay?”

 

“I’m fine.” Neil repeated himself again; Andrew was beginning to not like that word. Maybe that was the F word everyone kept telling him not to say, although they usually said it after he said fuck so it didn’t make much sense.

 

“You’re obviously not fine, you’re mumbling stuff which I would expect if you were a _normal_ ghost, but you were breathing really fast and ghosts _don’t_ breathe.”

 

Neil finally uncurled his legs from his chest, letting out a huge huff of air. It was very cold Andrew shivered slightly, realizing he was still in his pajamas.

 

“It’s… I'm okay it was just a… Nightmare? I guess you could call it that. Whatever surpasses as bad dreams for ghosts.”

 

“Oh I get nightmares too, they’re shitty.”

 

“Aren’t kids not supposed to say that word?” Neil looked amused which was a big improvement from Andrew’s point of view.

 

“I don’t know, you’re a kid too, shouldn’t you know?”

 

“Well, I’m sort of a kid,” Neil picked at the back of his hand absentmindedly. “I didn’t die a kid. I lived until I was 19 but it’s easier to take on the form of 7 year old me. Being smaller makes it easier to hide.”

 

“So you’re a grown up? That’s gross.” Andrew crossed his arms in front of himself, grown ups had never been very kind to him.

 

“Would you prefer I was a 7 year old who had been trapped here for hundreds of years? I’d still technically be old and I wouldn’t know anything except this house, I’d be boring. Anyways, age doesn’t really work in that way once you’re dead, I can take on the form of whatever age up to the time I died that I want!” Neil was getting more animated as he talked, it was clear he found this ghost stuff pretty cool. Andrew could understand that because it was.

 

“So wait, you can show me what you looked like when you were big?”

 

“Um, yeah I guess? Do you want me to?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Neil smiled before stepping away from Andrew, his form shimmered and he when he came back into view he was _much_ taller.

 

“You’re so tall.” Andrew couldn’t stop it from slipping out of his mouth.

 

“I'm actually pretty short for most adults, I’m sure you’ll be much taller when you are older.” Adult Neil laughed at him before changing back into normal Neil.

 

“That’s so weird.”

 

“Right?” Neil looked down at his feet. “Is it too weird? You can tell me to go away if you think it is, I won’t bother you again.”

 

Andrew answered that question by sitting down, and pointing at the ground in front of him until Neil got the idea and sat down as well.

 

“I don’t mind honestly, it’s already weird that you’re a ghost and all.” When Neil started to curl in on himself Andrew spoke up louder. “But that’s okay, I don’t mind that you’re a ghost. It’s just me and my brother here, I’ve never had a friend before.”

 

“Let’s be friends then!” Neil smiled so bright when Andrew nodded that Andrew felt himself start to smile just because of it. Neil’s teeth were nicer than Andrew’s though; he was missing two teeth from the right side of his mouth so his smile was all gappy. Aaron had only lost one tooth, which Andrew always boasted made him the older twin.

 

“Is that your mum that lives with you?” Neil’s voice brought him back to the present.

 

“Yeah.” Andrew’s voice grew hard when he talked about her.

 

“Oh, is she not a good person?”

 

“No, she yells at me and Aaron and drinks a lot, but you can’t tell anyone I said that because she’ll hit me.”

 

Neil’s face grew darker and darker with each of Andrew’s words. His face looked older even though he had definitely not changed his age.

 

“She wont hit you again. Not in this house.” Neil’s eyes were very serious.

 

“Can you do that?” Andrew didn’t really believe it but Adult Neil had been taller than his mother.

 

“I promise.”

 

                                                                                                                       ~~~~~~

 

Andrew made his way downstairs once his stomach started grumbling, he and Neil had talked about a lot of stuff; they talked a lot about Aaron along with Andrew’s favorite books and movies. Neil didn’t know any movies he said he’d never been allowed to read or watch anything as a kid, and he didn’t have time as an adult. He was also very weird about talking about his own family; he changed the subject a lot when Andrew tried to ask. That said, Andrew could definitely say he liked Neil, he would put Neil down as his second favorite person in the world. Nicky came after because he talked _a lot_ , and that got hard to cope with sometimes for him.

 

“You’re finally up! It’s like 2pm Andrew.” Aaron bounded over to him when he went into the kitchen. “I set up the TV! It looks like mum’s work set up the cable so we can watch stuff!”

 

That sounded pretty good so Andrew scrambled to make himself some cereal and they turned on some cartoons that Aaron liked. When Andrew was finished with his cereal and went and put his bowl in the sink to clean up later. Aaron had already brought out the crayons downstairs, so he was happily coloring. Andrew joined him, and they sat together and did that until they heard the front door opening as Tilda slammed in. They turned off the TV and cleaned up their coloring things immediately, not wanting to be told off for making a mess. They thought they were all in the clear till a screech came from the kitchen.

 

“Both of you brats fucking get in here.”

 

 They looked at each other, Andrew sorting through his memory to see if either of them had done anything wrong. _His bowl, he’d left his bowl in the sink_. How could he be so stupid? They both made their way into the kitchen; she was standing there with the bowl in her hand.

 

“What is this?”

 

“A bowl mum.” They both answered immediately.

 

“And who put this bowl in here?” She asked sweetly. Andrew stepped forward slowly, pushing Aaron behind him.

 

“I did mum, I'm sorry it was an accident.”

 

“An accident?” She shrieked as she slammed the bowl back on the counter. “No, an accident is what you two were, _this_ is you being a waste of space you piece of shit.”

 

She raised her hand and Andrew knew what was coming, he braced himself and tried to protect his face as best he could for pain that never came. Instead Aaron cried out in surprise and Tilda let out a choked scream while a male voice yelled something. He pulled his arms away from his face and in front of him was something he felt like he was hallucinating.

 

Adult Neil was holding Tilda’s arm in a tight grip, his eyes looked almost grey in and his expression was very angry, Andrew found himself shying away from that expression a bit, so he made his way back to Aaron and held his hand, but he didn’t run or look away.

 

“You don’t touch Andrew again.” Neil’s eyes flicked away from Tilda for a second to flicker between the two twins before focusing back on her. “You do not touch either of them again, not inside this house not outside this house.” The lights start flickering and Tilda whimpers a little. Neil wasn’t done though. “You don’t move out of this house to get away from me so you can continue hitting them. You leave them alone; I’ll leave you alone. Do you understand?”

 

Tilda was still whimpering so he gave her a shake, Andrew didn’t think he’d ever seen an adult protect him like this. He couldn’t help relaxing a little, even with Aaron shaking by his side.

 

“Do you understand?” Neil repeated. His grip on her arm was very tight.

 

“Y-yes! Yes! Please don’t hurt me please I-.”

 

“I’m not going to touch you lady, not unless you try to hurt one of the twins again, then I might be swayed to hurt you a bit.” Neil smiled in a way that didn’t look very happy at all, it was a scary smile a bit like his fathers in that picture Andrew found yesterday.

 

“Yes! I won’t touch them, I won’t!”

 

Just like that the lights stopped flickering and Neil let go of Tilda’s arm, letting her stumble off into a different room sobbing. Andrew was glad she got a taste of being scared if he’s honest. Neil turned around and his expression changed back to normal almost immediately.

 

“Wh-Who are you?” Aaron whispered, taking a step back. He was still shaking Andrew realized so he grabbed his brothers hand tighter as he took it upon himself to answer.

 

“This is my friend Neil, The one from the attic.”

 

“You said he was a kid.”

 

“He is! Well, sort of. Neil can you go back to being… not adult Neil?”

 

Neil snorted but did as he was told. Aaron watched in utter fascination as Neil’s form shimmered and he changed back into himself. Neil stepped forward and put his hand out.

 

“Neil Josten, it’s nice to finally meet you Aaron.” Aaron took his hand slowly, after looking toward Andrew. He seemed much calmer now that he knew that Andrew knew Neil. Neil smiled before turning toward Andrew.

 

“Are you okay? She didn’t get you at all? I was watching as soon as she started shouting.” His eyes were back to bright blue as they looked all over Andrew taking stock of him in the way Aaron did when he as looking for new bruises.

 

“I'm _fine._ ” Andrew mocked slightly before Neil pouted a little. “She didn’t hit me, you stopped her… Why did you do that?”

 

“I made you a promise that I’d protect you from her.” Neil said softly. “I keep my promises.”

 

Andrew understood that, he always kept his promises to Aaron and Nicky.

 

“I’ll see you in the attic tomorrow?” Neil questioned, cocking his head to the side. His red curls flopped in front of his eyes.

 

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

 

Neil smiled before fading away so the twins couldn’t see him anymore. Aaron stared at the space where he disappeared from for a solid 15 seconds before looking at Andrew with wide eyes. Andrew shrugged and tugged on his hand, snapping him out of it. They both crept out of the kitchen, finding Tilda still shaking busy drinking straight from a bottle of vodka, there were some pills on the table as well. She was still sniffling but she looked up when the boys entered.

 

“Is it gone?” she whispered.

 

“Yes mum.” Aaron answered dutifully.

 

“For now.” Andrew added. She shot him a glare before relaxing a bit.

 

“Okay good. Go to bed you two I don’t want to deal with you right now.” She shuddered and took another swig.

 

Both boys scurried up the stairs as fast as they could to Andrew’s room, Aaron grabbing some extra blankets from his room as they went by. When they got there they sat on the bed facing each other.

 

“Did he mean it when he said he was going to protect us?” Aaron’s eyes were shining with something that looked a little bit like excitement and a little bit like hope.

  
“Yeah I think he did. I trust him.”

 

Once Andrew had said that, it was enough and Aaron relaxed completely before reaching out for a book. They read together until Aaron fell asleep. Andrew got up and turned off the lights before climbing back into bed.

 

_Yes,_ he said to himself. _I think we might be okay here._ It was the first time he’d ever felt truly safe in his life. This house might just be the best thing to happen to him and his brother.

 

                                                                                                                      ~~~~~~


	2. Chapter 2

The Baltimore house had in fact been the best thing to ever happen to Aaron and Andrew. They were teenagers now, both 16 and much healthier than when they had first moved into the house. Of course, as things do over time, things had happened. Tilda had stopped hitting the boys ( _mostly,_ sometimes Neil had to remind her), and Neil had become a permanent fixture in the Minyard’s lives. Mainly in Andrew’s as Aaron never wanted to be seen as weird, and being friends with a ghost, well that was pretty weird. They had both gone to the local school, Neil and Andrew laughing about the teachers who were still around from Neil’s days at primary school before he and his mother had run away from his father.

 

Neil had slowly revealed parts of his past to Andrew, but never told him the full story. Andrew knew Neil’s father had been rich and abusive and that Neil’s mother had run away with him to keep him safe, but the way Neil talked about his father wasn’t the way Aaron used to talk about his mother, there was far more fear in the way he talked about him. Even dead, Neil refused to ever say his father’s name out loud. Andrew had looked up the name Neil Josten and had really found nothing, no deaths of any 20-year-old redhead boys, no adults grieving over the death of their son. It was all pretty suspicious, but Andrew understood that some secrets are better kept to yourself. He had his own secrets after all.

 

As he got older, Andrew really had to admit, having his own room was a godsend considering a redheaded now teenager featured in _a lot_ of his dreams. He would never tell anyone of course, and it didn’t mean anything anyway. Neil was a ghost and Andrew hated him for it some days, but the dreams didn’t mean anything, he was a teenager, he was sure he could have a dream about a tree and wake up panting and needing to change his boxers if he tried hard enough. Not that he’d ever _want_ to have those dreams about a tree, but the point was, they meant nothing.

 

It was the end of summer vacation, the first day back at school and Andrew was not enjoying being up this early. He groaned as Aaron banged on the door telling him to get up before they missed homeroom. He rolled himself out of bed ungracefully and pulled on his black jeans and shirt before making his way downstairs. Aaron was already up and dressed, looking through his homework for the millionth time to make sure there were no mistakes while he ate his plain toast. How boring, Andrew went and put his toast on before grabbing some Nutella and lathering it on his toast, Aaron made a disgusted noise from the other side of the room.

 

“How can you eat that shit honestly how do you not have diabetes or teeth problems?”

 

Andrew shrugged and kept eating, heading over to look over Aaron’s shoulder at what he was working on. It was their modern history homework, they were looking into modern day serial killers, as macabre as it sounded Aaron was fascinated by it and therefore Andrew knew more about murderers than he would ever have liked to.

 

“Stacey wants to come over tonight to hang out.” Aaron stated, staring up at Andrew beseechingly, “Mum will be out late tonight, can she come?”

 

Stacey was Aaron’s new girlfriend, he’d had a few and Andrew had to say, Aaron’s taste in girls was awful, the last one had some weird thing about ‘having both twins’ or some shit, Andrew almost killed her when she mentioned it at school. That relationship had _not_ lasted long. Aaron had never had a girl over, Andrew didn’t want them there and Tilda certainly wouldn’t have stood for it. Not to mention the whole _ghost infestation_ they had going on. Andrew stared at his brother with no emotion until Aaron sighed and picked up his books.

 

“Fine, I’ll just tell her mum’s home or something like I always do.” He mumbled, “Make sure you’re ready to go in five minutes Andrew I don’t want to be late.” He called over his shoulder. Andrew was ready to go, he never took books to class, he remembered everything there was no point in taking notes, even if the teachers didn’t appreciate it. He made his way up to the attic to let Neil know they were heading out.

 

“Hey! How did you sleep? Are you excited for school? Neil greeted him with far too much enthusiasm for this early in the day.

 

“I slept fine. Why would I be excited for school?” Andrew had never understood Neil’s fixation with school.

 

“School is good, you get to go outside and learn things, there’s math classes and you get to play sports like Exy.” Neil mumbled the last part, already knowing Andrew’s dislike for any sport.

 

“Every single thing you just said sounds completely awful to me I don’t know how we’re friends.” Andrew sighed.

 

“Oh so we’re friends now? I thought you hated me” Neil had that stupid smirk he got when he caught Andrew out; it was very annoying and not at all cute.

 

“I do hate you idiot, and I still don’t know why you wont come out of the attic its so gross and dusty.” Neil froze up like he always did whenever Andrew mentioned leaving the attic. It was an old argument, Neil always clamming up and refusing to leave unless he was stopping Tilda from doing something to the twins, Andrew didn’t understand it, what was so scary about this house anyway? It was too early to have this argument though so he just shrugged when Neil refused to say anything.

 

“Okay well, I’ll see you after school, don’t get too dusty up here.”

 

“I’ll see you later.” Neil turned away and Andrew watched him walk a bit before turning on his heel and heading downstairs so that he and Aaron could walk to school.

 

School was the worst in Andrew’s opinion, the people were annoying and boring, not a single one of them holding his attention. He spent most of his days listening to music in his headphones and avoiding seeing or talking to anyone except Aaron. The teachers tended to avoid him these days which was a relief, knowing that calling Tilda wouldn’t help anything because she was almost always drunk or on something these days so she could barely understand what they said. Andrew wasn’t really sure how she got away with being drunk and high at work all the time but she hadn’t been fired yet and he was glad he got to stay in Baltimore with Neil.

 

By the end of the day Andrew waited for Aaron before realizing that he was out with that Stacey girl. He sighed to himself before starting to make the walk back home.

 

“Hey Miniyard.”  Andrew turned around to see Jack, the dumbest human being in the world who thought picking on anyone was the best thing in life.

 

“What do you want John I'm going somewhere.” Andrew deigned to answer him but he refused to use the right name, it always riled the idiot up more anyway.

 

“Heard your brother’s out on a date, why aren’t you? Are you a poof?” Jack’s friends guffawed as they moved toward Andrew, pushing him backwards.

 

“Why Jake? Couldn’t find a new boyfriend?” Jack’s face went purple as he spluttered before attempting to throw a fist at Andrew. Andrew ducked before punching Jack in the stomach. The one highlight of being short is it put him in the best spot for taking someone out in one punch. Jack dropped like a stone, as most people Andrew hit usually did.

 

“Fuck off George I'm not in the mood for this.” Andrew kicked him one more time before starting to walk off, the rest of Jack’s cronies backing away nervously, not sure what to do when their king has been beaten.

 

“Fuck you fag, I hope you die in The Butcher’s house, I’ve heard it’s haunted. I wonder why they haven’t done away with you yet,” Jack gasped out, making Andrew pause.

 

“The Butcher?”

 

“Yeah the Butcher of Baltimore, he used to cut people in to tiny pieces and nobody ever found their remains.” Jack smiled nastily as he pulled himself back up to standing. “Wouldn’t even take much to dispose of you, there’s barely any of you anyway.”

 

Andrew rolled his eyes and walked away whilst flipping Jack the bird. Interesting, he would have to look up The Butcher of Baltimore when he got home, he wondered if it was just an old wives tale made to scare the children of Baltimore.

 

When he got home he grabbed himself some pop tarts from the cupboard and toasted them before making his way to the attic, Neil already waiting for him leaning against his cupboard.

 

“Good day?”

 

“As good as they all are.” Andrew replied waving his hand slightly, before he could put it down though Neil was across the room grabbing his arm and turning it over so he could see his hand.

 

“What happened?” His eyes were stormy in the way they got whenever Andrew got hurt. “Did she do this?”

 

“It’s bruised idiot I got it taking out some stupid fucker who thought I couldn’t handle myself.”

 

“Bring him over here and I’ll kill him.”

 

“I can handle myself Neil, plus that would just feed into the rumors about this house.”

 

“What rumors?” Neil had gone very still, his eyes calculating.

 

“The guy who I hit said that people thought the house was haunted.” Neil snorted at that before Andrew continued. “He said something about a Butcher of Baltimore?” If it was possible for a ghost to lose all the blood from their face, Neil managed it, his face going white.

 

“Don’t say that name.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Just don’t Andrew!” Neil pulled away and started pacing the room in agitation. “Names have more power than you think.”

 

“I don’t see why it matters the Butcher of Baltimore is a myth or something, I would have heard about it earlier otherwise.”

 

“Stop saying it!” Neil cried, pacing over to Andrew and covering his mouth before he could say anything else. “He’s not a myth, he’s been covered up by people you couldn’t even imagine, just leave it.”

 

“He seems to mean something to you for you to get this worked up about it.” Andrew raised his eyebrow when Neil immediately froze, pushing his face back into neutral like he always did before he lied.

 

“I don’t-“ Before Neil could finish the doorbell downstairs rang obsessively. Andrew stepped backward.

 

“To be continued.” He warned before making his way downstairs and opening the door to a policeman. That was a surprise, he made his way through everything he had done recently and couldn’t think of anything illegal, well, except hitting Jack but Jack was an idiot not a snitch. Before he could say whatever it was, it wasn’t him however the policeman spoke up.

 

“Are you Aaron or Andrew Minyard?” Andrew nodded his head. “I'm afraid there has been an accident. Your mother – she didn’t make it.”

 

                                                                                                       ~~~~~~

 

The twins had been questioned and then asked if they had any family they could stay with. Of course they had both said Luther Hemmick and family because that is all the family they had, although neither of them particularly wanted to see him. The police had tried to ship them down to Columbia but both boys had adamantly refused. Andrew would not be leaving the house behind and would die before anyone managed to force him to do anything and Aaron’s whole life was in Baltimore, moving was not an option. Eventually after much arguing, the police in Columbia sent word that Luther and his family were on their way to Baltimore, they had also sent word to their cousin, as they hadn’t been able to get in contact with Luther originally. If Andrew was honest, he had somewhat forgotten that Nicky existed, they hadn’t heard of him or seen him at all since they were 11, Luther had not mentioned him in his trips down to Baltimore after that, Andrew wondered why.

 

When the police finally let Andrew and Aaron go, Luther and Maria were only fifteen minutes away. Aaron was pale but not that torn up over Tilda’s death, as she was barely what one could call a mother and Andrew could not care less. As soon as they walked through the door a worried Neil greeted them.

 

“Are you two okay? I saw pig cars what’s going on?” his mouth curled up in a slight snarl at the word pig, interesting, it seemed their resident specter had an anti cop policy, that was something Andrew could agree with him on.

 

“We’re fine, Tilda is dead.”

 

“Andrew, have some respect.” Aaron growled.

 

“Why? She didn’t deserve my respect while she was alive, why would she deserve it dead?” Andrew had no patience for hypocrisy. Aaron shook his head, and turned towards Neil.

 

“Will she come back in this house?”

 

“No, she didn’t die here.” Neil looked certain of this and Andrew noticed as Aaron’s shoulders relaxed. Good, he hadn’t liked his weird grief-like behavior for someone who didn’t deserve it.

 

“Well now that we’ve cleared that up, Neil you’re going to have to stay out of sight for a bit. Our Uncle is coming to stay with his wife and we don’t want him performing an exorcism on the house.” Andrew said, Neil’s face did that thing it did when he got all self-deprecatory.

 

“Maybe he should.” He said softly, smiling sadly.

 

“Shut up Neil you’re not going anywhere.” Andrew said hotly. Over where Aaron had sat down there was a snort for some unknown reason. Andrew decided not to focus on it. “You just need to stay hidden until we can get rid of him.

 

“Okay. I will, but if he tries to hurt you I'm killing him.” Neil suddenly twitched, looking up as if he heard something that was neither Andrew nor Aaron. “I have to go back to the attic. Come find me when you can.” With that he disappeared.

 

“That was weird.” Noted Aaron from where he was sitting, Andrew went over to the couch and sat with him, turning on the TV.

 

“He’s a weird guy, I’ll work out what that was about later, we have other things to deal with right now.”

 

The doorbell rang.

 

“Speak of the fucking devil.” Aaron groaned as he hoisted himself up before looking at his twin. “You have to come with me, I'm not dealing with him alone.

 

Luther Hemmick was a very tall, thin man. He looked down on every person he met in every form of the term and he bullied his wife very obviously along with consistently ignoring his sister’s drug problem and never helping her or the twins. Andrew hated him.

 

“Hello Andrew, Aaron. I am so sorry about this tragic loss.” Luther’s slimy voice cut out making Andrew shudder internally “Let’s go inside, Maria can make us some tea.”

 

“Yes let’s. Tell me Luther, why are you here again?” Andrew questioned, already tired of the fake niceties.

 

“Well my sister just died and I'm here to pick my nephews up and take them back home to Columbia with me.”

 

“Ding dong you are wrong, please try again. Aaron and I are not leaving Baltimore and you are most definitely not going anywhere with us.”

 

“Now Andrew, you are both underage, you need an adult to guide you into life safely and as a good parent.”

 

“If you’re such a good parent then where is your son?” At these words Luther froze.

“Nicky is currently in Germany living a… _tasteless_ life that he refused to let me help him get out of.”

 

“What kind of tasteless?”

 

“Never you mind son, your young mind doesn’t need to be introduced to people like him who may influence you to become a sinner.”

 

Andrew decided to let the argument go realizing that Luther didn’t know that Nicky was in fact on his way to Baltimore from… Germany Andrew guessed if Luther had been being truthful. He had to admit, this was going to be rather fun to watch.

 

                                                                                                              ~~~~~~

 

Luther and Maria had agreed to stay in Baltimore for at least a couple of days when Andrew and Aaron adamantly refused to leave. Unfortunately for the twins and for Neil, they decided to stay in the house. This was why when the doorbell rang two days after they arrived, Maria went to open the front door while drying a glass and promptly proceeded to drop it. Andrew, Aaron and Luther went to see what the ruckus was about.

 

“Hi mum.”

 

Nicholas Hemmick looked quite different from when he was young to the twins, he was taller and older yes, but he had also lost his consistently happy personality if his interaction with his mother was anything to go by. He flinched when his father stepped into the doorframe, pushing Maria behind him.

 

“Hi dad.”

 

“You are not welcome here,” Luther hissed. “I will not have a heathen like you influencing these boys.

 

“Actually Luther.” Andrew drawled from behind. “I do believe this is mine and Aarons house, and we’re quite happy to welcome him in.” Nicky smiled weakly at him and Luther bristled, drawing himself up to his full height as he turned around.

 

“That’s it, I have had enough of your attitude young man, it’s no wonder your mother crashed her car drunk if I had had to deal with you as long as she did with this behavior I would have been driven to drink too.” Luther’s face was red as he ranted. Aaron inhaled sharply at his words but Andrew grabbed his wrist and simply raised his eyebrow at Luther who was nowhere near done. “Luckily for you and your brother I got here on time, I'm going to take you both away from this awful town and I'm going to help you become an acceptable young man again.”

 

“I'm not going anywhere Luther and you will not be looking after me or Aaron, we’ve been over this.”

 

“I am the only legal guardian you have. You have no say in the matter.”

 

“That’s not true.” A small voice piped in, interrupting the argument. Both parties turned their head toward the source, Nicky made himself stand up straighter in an obvious attempt to seem more confident than he was feeling. “I will be taking the twins. I'm not subjecting them to your _parenting skills.”_ The sarcasm was rolling off his tongue at this point. Luther looked like he was about to pass out.

 

“How dare you? I will not stand for this, get out and never talk to any of us again you abomination, I will not have some _fag_ attempt to turn my nephews to evil.”

 

“I’ve already got a lawyer on the case, we have a history of abusive camps you have sent to me to show the court, do you really want to take me on with this father?” Nicky was shaking slightly but he was holding himself up tall. Luther stared between him and the twins before angrily storming out of the door, Maria running out after him. Nicky slammed the door behind them and leaned back against it.

 

“Oh my god that felt so good.” He laughed tremulously before looking at the twins. “I’m so sorry that you had to see that guys I'm so sorry about your mum it must be awful.” Andrew held up his hand before Nicky could finish talking.

 

“We don’t honestly care that much, save the apologies for someone who needs them, Tilda was no better than your father when she was alive. Dead at least she can give us insurance money.” He had no time for false introductions. Nicky stared at him in shock before looking to Aaron who shrugged before walking back into the kitchen.

 

“Ok-a-y, well, in that case. Have either of you eaten anything yet? I can order some Pizza in.”

 

Andrew being done with words for the day nodded and followed his twin back into the living room. A blast of cold air filled his body briefly on the way but he figured it was just a window open somewhere so he continued on his way. The pizza was actually pretty good, the three boys sitting watching a movie before heading to bed. Andrew climbed his way up to the attic to talk to look at the stars with Neil through the window for a bit before saying goodnight and heading to bed. Before falling asleep he realized he would have to introduce Nicky to Neil. This should be interesting.

 

                                                                                                              ~~~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again!!! I'm super pumped about this series tbh. Things r gonna start getting sp000ky soon
> 
> please leave kudos and comments i live for them!

**Author's Note:**

> This took me FOREVER to write i started it ages ago and just never got back to it but i had a sudden inspiration so hear you go!
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy please leave Kudos and Comments i appreciate them so much and you all.


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